RealGM

Hopefully this is the new Mek and hopefully Diaw can always play this good and they can build on this game. Clearly it won't always be this good but I have to say I really really really hope they don't trade Wallace or Felton.
If we keep the team together and just basically run and gun and copy last years Suns we could be successful. Mek was showing me how many open dunks and he could get with DJ and Diaw and he is faster then the C's so he could be like the Amare. Wallace could be like the Marion and Diaw is a more used version of well Diaw at the 4. Bell could be the Bell clearly and DJ could be our Nash. Even Felton could be like the Barbosa. Instead of trading Wallace and Felton for an old Center like Brad Miller and Felton for a guy who might be good in 4 years like Wright why not keep them? There better then there trade value.
We ran last night and look what happened. They would even make money that way.
Plus we could build threw the draft.
Clearly DJ is not Nash and Mek is not Amare but you guys can see the where I am going with this.
We could be a not as good version as the Suns while we build.
If you take out Felton and add DJ we have the perfect players to run at every position.

As soon as I write this I goto Hoopshype and see Wallace for Brad Miller rumors. If they wanted a Center why not offer Kristic money.
This would be a horrible trade. Miller is not nearly as valuable as Wallace.

I think we are more like LB's Pistons more and more each week.

Felts to Billups
Hammer to Rip
Crash to Prince
Diaw to Sheed
EO50 to Big Ben

Sure, Felts isn't equal to Billups and Hammer isn't equal to Rip, but you get the idea!!

Of course, EO50 is better than the Beast on offense (not that that is saying much!!) so it all evens out.

BigSlam wrote:I think we are more like LB's Pistons more and more each week.

Felts to Billups
Hammer to Rip
Crash to Prince
Diaw to Sheed
EO50 to Big Ben

Sure, Felts isn't equal to Billups and Hammer isn't equal to Rip, but you get the idea!!

Of course, EO50 is better than the Beast on offense (not that that is saying much!!) so it all evens out.

I don't get the idea and you can't really be serious with the above post. Billups is a waaaay better defender than Felton. Rip is a waaaaaaaay better defender than Hammer. Prince is a waaaaaaaay better defender than Crash. Diaw and Sheed are about equal, but Sheed has more height and can better defend the interior. Big Ben in his hey day was a MUCH better defender than Emeka.

Now unless LB can work miracles with these players, I seriously doubt any of these present Bobcats will ever be in the class of those LB coached Piston teams.

Battery wrote:I don't get the idea and you can't really be serious with the above post.

Very serious. We are MUCH more like that Pistons team than we are of the Suns run and gun teams of recent times.

Our formula and make up is now very similar to LB's Pistons.

Of course, you did see this part of the post too, didn't you?

"Sure, Felts isn't equal to Billups and Hammer isn't equal to Rip, but you get the idea!!"

It would appear that LB is trying to recreate what he had there.

Not *last year's* Suns.
The current Bobcats players are too different from the Amare/Marion/Hill/Bell/Nash lineup to emulate the type of play Phoenix played last year (2007-2008).

They def have the pieces it takes to copy the healthy 2005-2006 Suns tho, the player roles and skillsets are VERY similar to each other.
Say they start DJ/Raja/Wallace/Diaw/Okafor, and use Felton as 6th man :


PG) Nash - Augustin.
Both very good jumpshooters/playmakers/free throw shooters. Pass first PGs that do a great job running the offense and will punish u from downtown with their jumper if you sag off em just a bit, or even if you don't! Like DJ, Nash was also a solid slasher back then.
Augustin obviously isn't on Nash's level, but he plays the same role.

SG) Raja - Raja.
Perimeter defense, catch and shoot, and flopping specialist that brings toughness and steps it up in big games.

SF) Marion - G.Wallace.
Athletic combo forwards that will punish u on the fast-break in transition with their quickness, knock down the open jumper, and take advantage of their athleticism to grab boards and play hardnosed defense both on the perimeter and in the post.

PF) Diaw - Diaw.
Versatile matchup nightmare point forward that will kill if he gets to dominate the high-post. Will abuse players his size or smaller all the way down to the low post with his large set of post moves, knock down the open J if u give him room, create for teamates, and defend both inside and out.

C) Kurt Thomas - Okafor.
Post defensive and rebounding specialists. On the offensive end they've got different styles of play tho. KT was more of a face-up bigman who mainly scored points off of mid-range jumpers, while Okafor is more low-post oriented and scores almost exclusively in the paint.
Still, even if they're stylistically different on the offensive end, they got pretty much the same basic roles.

6th man) Barbosa - Felton.
Offensive minded, fast as hell combo-guards that fill in at both guard positions and provide a scoring punch and ballhandling off the bench to keep the game from slipping by dominating the ball while the starters rest.

Too bad Ammo isn't living up to the hype, he shoulda been able to play Tim Thomas's shooting specialist off the bench role.


The 05-06 Suns were an extremelly unselfish team that made the top of the offensive rankings by constantly moving ball around, the Cats would have to keep on playing like they did vs the Grizz if they wanna emulate that.
Those Suns were also a VERY underated defensive team while healthy, we were top 5 in defensive efficiency up until Kurt Thomas went down injured (around February). After that we were forced to play Diaw @ center and Marion @ PF with ZERO reliable bigman backup, so we slipped a bit on D.

Everybody wrote off the Suns during the 05 offseason.
Many peeps didn't expect us to even make the playoffs after losing Joe Johnson by trade and Amare to microfracture injury, but everybody on our team stepped it up by playing excellent teamball and we made the Western Conf finals.
We lost Raja Bell in game 1 of the WCF on top of already missing Kurt Thomas, so after that we didn't stand a chance anymore, but our guys still put up a very good fight by pushing a full strength Dallas squad to 6 games despite playing in an exhausting 6 man rotation logging crazy minutes and constantly running up and down the court.

It'd be very interesting if LB keeps this core and keeps on making em play like they did last night, the game they were playing was pretty similar to the 05-06 Suns.

^ Nice post!

Thanks, I have my moments

Actually I said last year but didn't mean last year literally just the past couple years which would be more like the 06 Suns.

As for us being like the Pistons, you can't say there anything like the Pistons because every single player is so different. LB might prefer that Pistons style but these players would succed in an uptempo much more and every good coach knows you have to be able to adjust to your players.

Felton-Billups- it's not that there different it's there the complete opposite.
Bell Rip-Again nothing alike
Wallace-Prince Nothing alike as well almost polar opposites. Wallace earns is nickname as Crash and just runs up and down and plays above the rim. Prince is poised and makes passes and is a halfcourt player.
Diaw-Sheed- The only players close to being similar but still not. Sheed just wants to fit in and isn't selfish but Diaw is our facilatotor (spelling i know) and Sheed is not that.
Ben-Mek-We are trying to make Mek a go to scorer who can average 20. Is that what Ben's role was?

The old Suns when Amare used to score mostly on dunks is similar to Mek
Diaw is and Bell were there so clearly no need for comment on them.
Wallace is closer to Marion style wise then anybody else in the league.
DJ is similar to Nash and the only difference between Felton and Barbosa is they haven't taken the pressure of Felton and let him play a backup scoring role only.

Think about it.

Dexmor wrote:every good coach knows you have to be able to adjust to your players.

Larry Brown thinks otherwise.

Well if they do what the rumors say and trade Wallace for Brad Miller or something stupid you are 100% right and LB can't change.
If we get lucky and nobody wants Crash and we get to keep him and we win running like last night then even LB is gonna have to think twice.
Plus he is already doing 1 thing he doesn't normally do and that is play rookies.

I'd rather get to the Playoffs as the Bobcats and win the title than to get an early exit.

Screw the Suns

and Screw this idea.

SteveMorrison15 wrote:I'd rather get to the Playoffs as the Bobcats and win the title than to get an early exit.

Screw the Suns

and Screw this idea.

You're underating Diaw, he was the Suns "go to guy" back in 05-06 when Amare was out the whole season with microfracture. The Suns starting lineup consisted of

C-Kurt Thomas
PF-Boris Diaw
SF-Shawn Marion
SG-Raja Bell
PG-Steve Nash

with a bench of, James Jones, Eddie House, Tim Thomas, etc.

That team went to the WCF and alot of it was do to Diaw's play, that year they were written off due to losing JJ to free agency and Amare to knee surgery.

I see alot of comparisons actually as pointed out,

Thomas = Okafor, except Okafor is a better scorer and younger
Diaw = Diaw
Marion = Wallace, except Wallace is younger and a better scorer
Bell = Bell
Nash = Augustin, pretty similar players but obviously not on Nash's level

If you guys get a line up of

C-Okafor
PF-Diaw
SF-Wallace
SG-Bell
PG-Augustin

with players comming off the bench like Felton, Morrison, etc the Bobcats look like a playoff team in the east to me.

SUNSARETHEBEST wrote:

SteveMorrison15 wrote:I'd rather get to the Playoffs as the Bobcats and win the title than to get an early exit.

Screw the Suns

and Screw this idea.

You're underating Diaw, he was the Suns "go to guy" back in 05-06 when Amare was out the whole season with microfracture.

Did I say Diaw's name in that post . . .

Well Im not sure Wallace is a better scorer. Actually Im pretty sure he's not. Also we would need DJ to really step it up and EO needs to really step it up.

I cant believe some of you are comparing urselfs to the pistons. No way! Now the Suns Team I totally believe it. You guys are putting up solid games, In your wins and losses. An exciting team to watch unlike the pistons. Im sorry but must agree you guys are turning into the next suns team

PHXTERROR1987 wrote:I cant believe some of you are comparing urselfs to the pistons. No way! Now the Suns Team I totally believe it. You guys are putting up solid games, In your wins and losses. An exciting team to watch unlike the pistons. Im sorry but must agree you guys are turning into the next suns team

I can't believe this thread exists. Just because we have Diaw and Bell people are quick to compare us to the suns. If having players from former teams makes us a different team then we are like the:

Kings
Hawks
Spurs
Bulls
Sixers
Bullets
Magic
Rockets
Wizards
Blazers
Mavericks
Jazz
Sixers
Knicks

let's us not forget that we are like...

UNC
UCONN
Michigan State
LSU
Kentucky
France
Florida International
Gonzaga
UCLA
Notre Dame
Alabama
Texas
Virginia

tell me that your a lockdown Defensive team? HELL NO. Bobcats are now my 2nd favorite team behind the suns. Trust me. Theres nothing wrong with playin like a contender team. You must be smokin something thinkin your like the pistons. very far from it. You guys can actually score from so many different players. SUNS = BOBCATS haha.

With 3D in the team, Bobcats > Suns hihi. Bobcats are now my 1rst favorite team before the Suns!

phxsunsrock - your a lost soul man. U will find ur way back lmao. But seriously 3d is the ****.